It ain't easy being green

Do you have that friend? The one friend who follows you and
others around the house, apartment or residence hall waiting for
you to turn the room light off? And of course, when you forget to
switch off the light they pointedly glare at you and then
deliberately correct your mistake. It's the same person who shuns
plastic water bottles, shopping bags and preaches the dangers of
global warming at any chance possible.

That friend — yeah, that would be me.

I am the person in The Daily Targum office that has made it my
mission to promptly shut off the bathroom lights after someone
conveniently forgets. I strictly divide up my garbage, placing it
in the proper paper, plastic or trash container. I feel guilty when
I do not recycle, forget my cotton shopping bags, choose the
grocery store over the local farmers' market and have not seen "An
Inconvenient Truth." I will walk throughout my apartment randomly
during the day unplugging any appliances not in use. And when my
housemate goes home for the weekend I even shamelessly sneak into
her room to turn off her surge protector. What can I say — I have
green fever.

This is not to say that I am a raw food only, let it mellow if
it's yellow, one-minute shower greenie. I have to admit — sometimes
it is much easier to pretend that I am saving the planet than
actually following through with it.

It is hard to live up to the highest green expectations. Hot
water showers in the morning, every morning, are my saving grace
most days, and I am pretty sure that I would not be able to survive
without them. There is also the slight problem that I am extreme
clean freak — I consider it absolutely unacceptable for me to wear
a pair of jeans more than once. They must always be washed due to
the amount of inscrutable dirt I believe covers them after sitting
down in University desks all day. It does not matter if the socks I
am washing were worn for only three hours, and that it is
unnecessary to waste precious water on them. To me, clean comes
first. Also, I like hairspray, no matter how many
chlorofluorocarbons it releases into the ozone layer.

Being green and eco-friendly became a fashionable trend. We have
all seen the uncountable number of celebrities daintily carrying
their "I am not a grocery bag," or, the ever so clever, "Don't be
mean, be green" canvas totes. Buying a Prius receives equal rag-mag
coverage as the new Lady Gaga outfit. And so, green living tends to
fall by the wayside, pushed aside and dismissed, seen only as a
popular culture trend, much like adopting way too many foreign
children or carrying around small dogs. Honestly, how can
implementing a greener lifestyle not be seen as a joke after the
"Brooke Knows Best" episode where Brooke Hogan's crazy roommate
shuts off the shower because Brooke wasted too much water?

And yet, I do believe that there is hope. Becoming green does
not need to consume one's life. Becoming green also does not mean
that you need to believe in global warming, you can still continue
to assert that global warming is a Democratic conspiracy meant to
scare the unassuming and naïve masses. Heck, you can still eat as
much red meat as you can cram into your gullet. Because, the cow
farts are not killing us. It's sheer laziness that is.

We all know that plastic water bottles are bad for Mother Earth,
and yet, we continue to buy Poland Spring like no one's business.
Switching over to aluminum water bottles takes little effort and
makes a big difference. Buying a Brita water filter and Gaiam
reusable bottle has not only made me feel like I am doing my part,
but it has saved me so much money. And if I do say so myself, my
snazzy green water filter and bottle look pretty awesome.

Another tried and true step for the greenie beginner is to
replace incandescent light bulbs with compact florescent light
bulbs, or CFL bulbs. And I get it, some feel that CFLs cast an
unflattering light. But even just placing CFL bulbs in your
basement or kitchen helps.

The small stuff really does make a difference. You do not need
to replace your toilet plumbing to decrease the water flow to make
an impact or recycle your pee into drinkable water. Being green is
a matter of baby steps. No matter how cliché it sounds it simply
comes down to caring enough about our planet to make tiny lifestyle
changes — changes that in the long run will really define us as the
"Green Generation."

An eco-friendly lifestyle is also not grounded in politics.
Recycling paper does not mean that you are supporting the Democrats
and betraying your Republican counterparts. It also does not mean
that you support Al Gore. It just makes sense.

To be green is to be selfish. It means that you enjoy the space
that you live in. It means that when you walk down the street and
smell the now-blooming tulips randomly scattered in New Brunswick,
you want those flowers to still bloom years from now. And it means
that you never ever want to live in outer space while tiny square
robots clean up our polluted mess left behind on earth. The small
stuff really does make a difference. You do not need to replace
your toilet plumbing to decrease the water flow to make an impact
or recycle your pee into drinkable water. Being green is a matter
of baby steps. No matter how cliché it sounds it simply comes down
to caring enough about our planet to make tiny lifestyle changes.
Changes that in the long run will really define us as the "Green
Generation."

An eco-friendly lifestyle is also not grounded in politics.
Recycling paper does not mean that you are supporting the Democrats
and betraying your Republican counterparts. It also does not mean
that you support Al Gore. It just makes sense.

Emily Borsetti is a School of Arts and Sciences junior majoring
in English and art history. She is the associate copy editor at The
Daily Targum.